Internationally Renowned Organists to Perform at the Budapest Organ Festival

For the second time, the Budapest International Organ Festival will be held between May 5 and June 30 at the Inner City Parish Church in Budapest, where Polish and Italian organists will perform alongside Hungarian artists.

The festival’s artistic director, Zsolt Máté Mészáros, has invited international representatives of organ music to the event, organized this year in partnership with the Polish Institute and the Italian Cultural Institute.

This year, Hungary celebrates a double anniversary with Poland.

Saint Kinga, patron saint of Poland and Lithuania, was born 800 years ago, while Saint Hedwig, daughter of King Louis I of Hungary and later Queen of Poland, was born 650 years ago. To mark the occasion, two important Polish artists, Pawel Wróbel and Roman Perucki, and two Hungarian organists, János Pálúr and Zsolt Máté Mészáros, will give concerts, and Silvio Celeghin from Italy will be a special guest.

For this year’s event, Mészáros asked the organists

to put together a program that would give the audience an insight into the world of the artists’ musical culture, and to choose at least one work that would show the common values of Hungary, Poland, and Italy.

On May 12, the festival will open with a concert by Silvio Celeghin, who will perform works by Antonio Vivaldi, Marco Enrico Bossi, Giuseppe Verdi, Franz Liszt, Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Morandi, and Wolfango Dalla Vecchia. The Italian organist, pianist, and harpsichordist has given concerts in many European countries including China, Russia, and Venezuela, and is a regular performer at the most prestigious international organ festivals.

On May 5, Polish organist Pawel Wróbel will perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, John Stanley, Franz Liszt, and Mieczyslaw Surzynski. Wróbel is the winner of several international organ competitions and has given concerts in Poland, Europe, the United States, and Russia. He is the artistic director of the Kielce International Organ Festival and a professor at the Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa. As part of a fellowship program, he launched a project on forgotten organ works by 20th century Polish composers, and was the first to publish the organ works of Aleksander Karczynski, and subsequently recorded a disc of works by Polish composers Walerian Stys, Franciszek Przystal, Boleslaw Wallek Walewski, and Kazimierz Garbusinski.

On June 24, Roman Perucki and Maria Perucka will give a joint concert performing works by Feliks Borowski, Zoltán Gárdonyi, Jan Ignacy Paderewski, Alexander Guilmant, Mieczyslaw Surzynski, and Louis Vierne. The Polish musician Roman Perucki is organist at the Oliwa Cathedral in Gdansk and appointed professor of organ at the Gdansk Academy of Music. He has given over 2,500 concerts worldwide and has given master classes in France, Poland, Portugal, Mexico, and Russia.

On May 8, János Pálúr will perform a selection of works by Ferenc Liszt, Zoltán Kodály, and Charles-Marie Widor, as well as his own works. The Hungarian organist is professor of organ and improvisation at the Liszt Academy of Music and organist at the Reformed Church of Fasor in Budapest. He is a gold medalist in numerous organ competitions and has given concerts in 17 European countries, as well as in the United States, Canada, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and Australia.

The series of concerts will conclude with a performance by Mészáros on June 30, featuring works by Ferenc Liszt, Ernő Dohnányi, Dezső Antalffy-Zsiross, and Mészáros himself. The Junior Prima Prize-winning organist and research scholar of Liszt is the music director of the Inner City Parish Church in Budapest, and regularly performs as a soloist at Hungary’s most important concert venues and festivals. In recent years, he has given hundreds of concerts in Hungary, as well as in several European countries, in the United States, and at the Terra Sancta Organ Festival. His concerts often feature his own organ transcriptions.

Via MTI, Featured image: Belvárosi Nagyboldogasszony Főplébánia-templom